6-25 Jill Hummel Welchman Reading Response-Religion and Politics Dr. Williamson June 25, 2014
There seems to be a fine line between the religious and political poems of this time period, by this group of women. The religious poetry often feels like it is taking a political stance, and the political poetry often feels like it is taking on a religious fervor and energy. For example, Jane Austen’s prayers often reveal this duality. One often considers prayers to be a private matter. We say them under our breath or silently in our moments of intimacy with our version of God. They are private articulations. For Austen, by publishing them, she is taking them out of that private space and making her religious supplications witness-able to the public reader. Other indications of this, is her specific and consistent use of plural pronouns: “Give us grace almighty father, so to pray, as to deserve to be heard, to address thee with our hearts, as with our lips” (478). In this first prayer, there is the desire that “we” have God’s ear when our hearts and our words speak the same thing. May the private hearts and its public actions be in sync with our spoken words. In this way, by including herself in the “we” is making a possible criticism of the public body that does not operate this way. She is not directly singling anyone out by including herself in the criticized, and in this way is allowed to make a larger social criticism. She is not casting stones without acknowledging her own sinning. It is in the third paragraph of her first prayer that her political stances, especially on slavery, is evident. She writes: “Be gracious to our necessities, and guard us, and all we love from evil this night. May the sick and afflicted, be now, and ever they care; and heartily do we pray for the safety of all that travel by land or sea, for the comfort & protection of the orphan and widow and that thy pity may be shewn upon all captives and prisoners” (Austen 479). Here she transitions from the generalities that include her and the general public and moves to a more specific expression. She points out the “evils of this night” those that “travel by land or sea” are the “captives and prisoners.” In my opinion, she is specifically addressing the movements of slave trade and the people it victimizes. By including the slaves in her public-private prayers, she is making her politics into a repeatable and, most importantly, re-readable incantation. She continues this into her last paragraph when she writes: “…quicken our sense of thy mercy in redemption of the world, of that value of that holy religion in which we have been brought, that we may not…be Christians only in name” (Austen 479). Her phrasing here is very important and revealing. She is not calling down for “her” redemption or “our” redemption, but in the “redemption” of the world and this includes the “captives and prisoners.” She is also supplicating for the self-awareness to avoid being a Christian, not only in name, but in deed as well. I think Austen offers us a well-crafted example of how this religious expression can be both a private act and a call to public action. If anyone criticizes her politics, she always has the ready observation that these were her private thoughts and they are not within the public sphere of the critic. But there is no doubt that these prayers are observations of public behavior and political policy. She is crafty that one.
Jill Hummel Welchman
Reading Response-Religion and Politics
Dr. Williamson
June 25, 2014
There seems to be a fine line between the religious and political poems of this time period, by this group of women. The religious poetry often feels like it is taking a political stance, and the political poetry often feels like it is taking on a religious fervor and energy.
For example, Jane Austen’s prayers often reveal this duality. One often considers prayers to be a private matter. We say them under our breath or silently in our moments of intimacy with our version of God. They are private articulations. For Austen, by publishing them, she is taking them out of that private space and making her religious supplications witness-able to the public reader. Other indications of this, is her specific and consistent use of plural pronouns: “Give us grace almighty father, so to pray, as to deserve to be heard, to address thee with our hearts, as with our lips” (478). In this first prayer, there is the desire that “we” have God’s ear when our hearts and our words speak the same thing. May the private hearts and its public actions be in sync with our spoken words. In this way, by including herself in the “we” is making a possible criticism of the public body that does not operate this way. She is not directly singling anyone out by including herself in the criticized, and in this way is allowed to make a larger social criticism. She is not casting stones without acknowledging her own sinning.
It is in the third paragraph of her first prayer that her political stances, especially on slavery, is evident. She writes: “Be gracious to our necessities, and guard us, and all we love from evil this night. May the sick and afflicted, be now, and ever they care; and heartily do we pray for the safety of all that travel by land or sea, for the comfort & protection of the orphan and widow and that thy pity may be shewn upon all captives and prisoners” (Austen 479). Here she transitions from the generalities that include her and the general public and moves to a more specific expression. She points out the “evils of this night” those that “travel by land or sea” are the “captives and prisoners.” In my opinion, she is specifically addressing the movements of slave trade and the people it victimizes. By including the slaves in her public-private prayers, she is making her politics into a repeatable and, most importantly, re-readable incantation.
She continues this into her last paragraph when she writes: “…quicken our sense of thy mercy in redemption of the world, of that value of that holy religion in which we have been brought, that we may not…be Christians only in name” (Austen 479). Her phrasing here is very important and revealing. She is not calling down for “her” redemption or “our” redemption, but in the “redemption” of the world and this includes the “captives and prisoners.” She is also supplicating for the self-awareness to avoid being a Christian, not only in name, but in deed as well.
I think Austen offers us a well-crafted example of how this religious expression can be both a private act and a call to public action. If anyone criticizes her politics, she always has the ready observation that these were her private thoughts and they are not within the public sphere of the critic. But there is no doubt that these prayers are observations of public behavior and political policy. She is crafty that one.